Brain-injured children may use gesture to signal they need help in developing language, claims a new study.
Brain injury, pre or perinatal brain lesions, mainly occurs as a result of stroke, with risk factors involving both mothers and babies. Children with early brain lesions that affect one side of the brain often take longer to reach early language milestones; these delays normalize for many but persist for some. The new research has found that children’s gesturing at 18 months can identify those children who will have these later language delays.
Researchers at the University of Chicago carried out the work, which can be found in the March/April 2010 issue of the Child Development journal.
The study looked at gestures such as pointing or waving goodbye in 11 to 18-month-olds as a way of predicting later vocabulary delays. The researchers considered gesture because recent studies have found it to be a good predictor of later language abilities in typically developing children. The children’s language comprehension was tested when they were 30 months old.
Source : http://beta.thehindu.com/health/rx/article316614.ece?homepage=true
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